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Shouto just wanted a single normal, calm day.
“Behold, citizens! I am here! To release you from your oppressors!”
Is that really too much to ask?
“Come with me and I’ll make sure you’re seen as equals- oh, hey, Shouto!”
Shouto ducked his head, hiding under the hood of his hoodie. He wasn’t doing this today, he wasn’t-
“Shouto, I already saw you! There’s no use running away, now.” Shouto groaned as a head of green appeared directly in front of him, blocking his path. He stopped.
“Hey, Izuku. How’s it going.” Despite delivering it in his best monotone, the boy in front of him seemed to sparkle, leaning against a nearby streetlight. They both chose to ignore the dozens of incredulous stares. In the background, someone called out ‘what about the rest of your speech?!’
“Oh, you know,” he said casually. “I’ve been recruiting people, helping them get good jobs, better salaries. Terrorizing greedy corporate executives and bigoted assholes. The usual. It’s been fun!” Suddenly, his expression became more serious. “What about you? I heard there was another attack on your class, during your summer camp?”
Shouto didn’t particularly want to answer that, but he did anyway. Curse his extroverted tendencies. “Yes, I think they just wanted to scare us. Nobody was badly hurt.” In their words, after they’d watched the Sports Fest ‘nobody at UA was capable of being a villain.’
The boy in front of him chuckled. “That’s good. And hey, don’t worry about it anymore; I have some leads, so they’ll be taken care of soon.”
Shouto shivered at the implications of that. “Please don’t take any unnecessary risks.”
“Aww, Shouto, I knew you cared!” He only chuckled harder when Shouto tried to freeze him where he stood, just jumping out of the way. “Anyway! I don’t have time for you to try and catch me today, sorry. See you around, though!”
The little green menace leapt away, grappling hooks and rocket shoes and all sorts of bullshit gadgets helping him along. “No you won’t,” he tried to call after him, but it was swallowed by the wind. He let out another long, suffering sigh.
He’d met Izuku only shortly before the UA entrance exam. Back then he’d still been a stuck-up, entitled prick; Izuku called it his ‘rebellious, emo phase’ but that put it pretty lightly. He’d been obsessed with undermining his father, and doing anything in his power to showcase that. So when the up-and-coming vigilante Endeavor had famously been chasing for weeks showed up at their house, Shouto had been determined to catch them himself.
Luckily he’d been drilled about vigilante laws for years, so he already knew that on his own property it wasn’t illegal. He’d jumped in the moment he’d caught sight of the distinctive costume, and the resulting fight had changed his life.
“Are you living your life in fear, Todoroki?!” the voice had shouted. “I know who you are! I know what you can do! And I know you know me. How can you hope to win with half of your power?”
“It isn’t mine!” he’d said in retaliation, pushing out another ice spike that was easily dodged. “It’s his.”
And the vigilante paused. Actually paused in the middle of their fight. “How much control does your father have over you,” he’d said, “if you’d go so far as to handicap yourself so severely?” He’d jumped back into the air, flipping into a kick Shouto barely blocked. “It’s your power, Todoroki Shouto, not your father’s.”
The resulting explosion had taken months to repair.
Ever since, the vigilante the media had dubbed ‘Goblin’ for his annoying tendencies had become a fixture in his life. It was the most trust anyone had ever placed in him, especially once he’d revealed himself to be a boy his age named Izuku. It was incredibly freeing; for once, Shouto was able to talk to someone without societal pressure; it had been a major help when he eventually took the General Entrance Exam for UA (rejecting the Recommendation had been Izuku’s idea), and when he’d joined Class 1-A. Now he had several close friends, the start to a career he could be proud of, and a relationship with his mother that was already on the mend.
…it was a bit tricky on the legal side, however. It had been one thing when he was just a student; his lack of fighting was justifiable. But now he had a provisional license, and still he remained criminally complacent.
Shouto was always left feeling slightly guilty at the end of their conversations. As nice as he was around Shouto, and as positively as he’d affected his life, he was still a villain; it felt like every day Shouto would turn on the TV only to see a small green-haired menace cackling atop a burning bank, or heading some sort of protest, or grainy footage of him petting cats in the middle of a fight with several top Heroes.
Every sighting left him with a growing pit in his stomach. Sure, Izuku claimed the bank owners were greedy and bigoted; and sure, the protests were mostly justified. But it still hurt people. Jobs were lost, property was destroyed. How could Shouto continue to call himself a Hero if he didn’t do something about it?
He shook his head. No point dwelling about that right now. It was supposed to be his day off, and he didn’t normally get those. It was the perfect time to hang out with friends, visit his mother, maybe have dinner with his siblings-
“Hello, Hero.”
…or not. Shouto let out a long, suffering sigh. “Hello, Shigaraki. How’s it going?” It always paid to be polite.
The villain in question scratched his neck aggressively with the hand that wasn’t currently posed under his throat. “Stop acting like we’re friends!” he demanded. “You’re supposed to be scared of me!” Shouto shrugged. Shigaraki growled.
Shouto didn’t answer further, and the two of them continued to walk in a truly awkward silence. Eventually it was the villain who broke the silence.
“I have some new recruits, you know.”
“Hmm.”
“They’ll give you a run for your money, I’m sure. Both of them have attitude problems and fire quirks. I’m sure you’re familiar with those.”
“Hmm.”
“I could introduce you to them now, if you’d like.”
…that one gave Shouto pause. Normally, he’d just remain quiet until Shigaraki tired himself out, and then report everything he’d heard to the police. This time was different, however; getting more villains involved meant getting more civilians involved, and Shouto might not be able to protect them.
“…no,” he said. Then, “No thank you.” Again, it paid to be polite.
Sigaraki cackled. “Oh, so that gets me a reaction, does it? Well, I hate to say this, Todoroki,” his name was practically spit out. “But they’re already on their way. You’ll get to witness their debut! Oh, I’m so excited-”
Shit. That wasn’t good. The streets around him were full of civilians, and there was no way Shouto alone would be enough to protect them all. He looked around, desperately trying to spot a Pro or even one of his friends; instead, heterochromatic eyes met bright green ones. He sighed. Great.
“…strike fear into your hearts, Heroes-”
Shigaraki, he mouthed. Izuku, dressed like a civilian, just tilted his head. Shouto tilted his own to point towards the crusty face of his current captor. Friend? Izuku mouthed back. Shouto resisted the urge to facepalm. He shook his head. Izuku’s eyes finally widened, and he ducked into an alley.
“…they’re two new menaces, who- are you even listening?” He jostled Shouto around a little. He rolled his eyes minutely.
“Yes,” he answered on reflex. Somehow, he thought Shigaraki hadn’t believed him. The villain’s face pinched into a scowl.
“Whatever,” he said. “You’ll see what I meant soon enough!” He cackled for a little while before trailing off awkwardly, and Shouto got the impression that something was supposed to have happened. Politely, Shouto didn’t bring it up. They both waited in tense silence for a few minutes.
Finally, a deep purple mass began to form, directly in the center of the plaza. A couple of civilians wandered in on accident, only to reemerge seconds later screaming. That… wasn’t a good sign, Shouto would wager. He pinched the bridge of his nose. This was going to be annoying.
Luckily for him, the moment the portal had formed Shigaraki had let him go in favor of yelling at the formless mass for ‘ruining his moment’ and ‘forcing him into coming up with new dialogue options’. Idly Shouto wondered how his life had come to this, before dropping it. That wasn’t productive to his mental health.
Nobody seemed to be emerging from the portal yet, so instead he focused on evacuating civilians. Fortunately most of them had already cleared out, but some particularly stubborn fanatics had tried to stay behind to watch the fight. It took the promise of selfies and autographs later to get them to clear out, and even then he was sure some would attempt to sneak back in.
Dealing with civilians was more exhausting than any villain fight, in Shouto’s humble opinion.
He only had a fraction of a moment’s rest before he was thrust violently back into his job. Blue plumes of fire rushed towards him, a torrent stronger than anything he could produce physically pushing him back even as he deflected the brunt of it upwards. It seemed to last for hours before they finally abated, revealing the source. Shouto almost wished he’d lost his eyes to the flames.
The new villain looked uncomfortably like he’d imagined himself looking, back when he’d thought about dyeing his hair to piss of his father. He was dressed in clothing Shouto would generously describe as ‘cheesy’, and was sporting a look of deranged cockiness Shouto could only wish to pull off.
Also, he was smoking from several gaps in his skin. That were held together by staples.
What the fuck.
The villain cackled. “What’s wrong, Todoroki?” Did Shouto know this guy? “Does my appearance frighten you that much? Does it strike fear into your heart?” He sent another plume of flames at his feet.
“No.” He used his flames to launch himself over it, retaliating with a subtle layer of ice on the ground. He returned another shot of fire aimed for the guy’s head. A pause. “What’s your name?”
The villain looked incredulous even as he parried the flames. “What?”
Shouto shrugged, shooting out a glacier. “You know mine, it only seems fair.”
The villain laughed, hands smoking as he made handholds in the ice to elevate himself. He stood at the top, clothes flapping dramatically in the wind. “My name is Dabi, Her-”
“DIE!”
Once again, Shouto was forced to dodge as an explosion rocked the plaza. A good chunk of it hit his glacier, causing the villain – Dabi, now – to fall. He swore.
“Dynamight, what the fuck, kid! I had it handled!”
The newcomer laughed. “You were taking too long, and there’s no one else to fight.” He grinned. “Let me have some fun, too.”
The second one – Dynamight? – was dressed with what looked like a knockoff Hero costume. He had a mask on over his eyes, and what looked like tactical clothing covered in green and orange accents covering the rest of his body sans his hands. A couple of bulky wrist-guards that looked like grenades rested on his forearms. He had a manic smile on his face.
“Now, let’s see what you’ve got, Hero-”
“Kacchan?”
The villain visibly flinched as the small green blur showed up, shooting straight into Dabi. The latter groaned as Izuku stood, still pointedly on top of the villain. Dynamight squinted at Izuku, the gears in his mind visibly turning.
After a moment, his eyes widened. “Wait. Deku? The fuck are you doing here, nerd?”
Izuku frowned, staring at the costume. “I’m helping out a friend. What are you doing here, Kacchan?” Izuku almost sounded… disappointed. What?
Dynamight (or was it Kacchan?) looked down at himself, then back at Izuku. “It’s not what it looks like, Deku! Besides, what do you care?”
“I care,” he practically spit out, “because you’re dressed like a villain and you’re attacking my friend. What would Aunt Mitsuki say, if she found out?”
Dynacchan shivered. “She won’t. And I’m not attacking anybody! I’d never become a villain, Deku, you know that. And besides, you look suspiciously like that guy – the gremlin?”
“It’s Goblin, you illiterate- oh, fuck.”
Kacchanamight smirked. “What would Auntie Inko say, if she found out her baby was burning down banks and causing social uprisings?”
“I mean- she might say ‘I’m proud of you, Izuku’ to be honest. It’s not like I’m hurting anybody,” he said with a pointed look, “and it’s all a long time coming anyway. Society needs this.”
“I’m not hurting anybody either! You, half-and-half.” Shouto startled. “Did I hurt you?”
Shouto had not prepared himself for this much absolutely insane interaction today. He kept it simple. “No.”
“Hah! See? I even stopped scarface over there from doing more damage.” He stood straighter. “You’re looking at the only person to have every successfully infiltrated the League Of Villains!”
Silence reigned for a good while, only broken by the cackling of fire. Eventually Dabi piped up.
“Kid, I just heard you say all that. And I’m sure Shigaraki did too.”
Kacchanamight’s shoulders slumped. “Fuck.”
Izuku, who had already applied dozens of restraints on Dabi, walked over to pat him on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, Kacchan! I’ve got room for you. We’re in need of some real firepower.”
Kacchanamight looked very much like he wanted to join, but also didn’t want to seem desperate. He straightened up. “Whatever. I’ll think about it.”
“Great! And don’t worry about trying to infiltrate anything ever again. I have someone for that, already, and she’s great! Way better at subtlety.”
“What are you implying, nerd-”
The sound of sirens appeared in the distance, slowly growing louder. “Izuku.” The boy in question turned, expression questioning. “The police.”
“Oh!” he said. “Right. Well, it was nice seeing you, Shouto, and great catching up, Kacchan. Meet me in the forest at the bridge two days from now if you want to join, I’ll send someone to get you.” He shot out a grappling hook, swinging away in moments. Kacchanamight looked affronted, yelling after him.
“What, are you too important to do it yourself, dipsh- shit!” he yelled at the sight of the red and blue lights. “We’ll have a real fight sometime, half-and-half. I look forward to it.” He smirked. “You’re not half bad.” Without another word he let explosions spark from his palms, blasting himself loudly over the rooftops. Shouto looked back down, where a sheepish Dabi was lying.
“Hey there, Shouto. You wouldn’t mind giving a brother a helping hand, would you?”
Shouto closed his eyes, took several deep breaths, and headed home.